Denver Stampede Boot Sacramento Express

With the final week of the June International Tests, the Denver Stampede were missing three players who were with the Eagles, Chris Baumann, Ben Tarr and Chad London. The Sacramento Express missed Ray Barkwill to Canada and LangiLangi Haupeakui, who was added to the Eagles squad after an impressive camp this past week.

The Stampede also faced other disruptions to their forwards with Peter Dahl, Casey Rock and Christian Weissing out with injuries. The Sacramento Express entered the match after three consecutive bye weeks and had to quickly shake off any rust from their lack of matches.

While the Denver Stampede would emerge with a 29-13 win over the Sacramento Express, it wasn’t an easy match. The Stampede needed a bonus point to remain in first place, but that did not happen. It did for the Ohio Aviators in their win over the San Francisco Rush and propelled the Aviators into first place with 32 points to 31 for the Stampede. Denver has four matches remaining in the season, while Ohio has three.

The Sacramento Express play five consecutive matches to end their season, while the San Francisco Rush have four. During the first week of the season, the Express gained their only win against the Rush. The Rush have two wins and both teams would like to avoid the Wooden Spoon. San Diego sits in third place and would like finish on a high note and can play the spoiler as they face Ohio and Denver in consecutive weeks.

Denver Stampede v Sacramento Express Recap

The Denver Stampede came in motivated after their first loss last week to Ohio. They had the first opportunity to be on the board first within the first minute of play, but a Will Magie penalty kick went wide.

It would be seventeen minutes before Denver drew first blood when Magie slotted a 48 meter kick to give the Stampede a 3-0 lead. Six minutes later Mirco Bergamasco tied the match at 3 all with a penalty kick for the Express.

The match then seesawed with attacks from both sides before Pedrie Wannenburg used quick hands to spring Lynton Mare in for a try in the corner. Magie missed the conversion, but the Stampede had a 8-3 lead.

With halftime nearing, Sacramento unleashed there best attack taking a three on two at the 22 to within 7 meters of the line. A high tackle by Jake Turnbull of Denver probably saved a try, but resulted in a yellow card with a minute to play. In the ensuing scrum, Kyle Sumsion picked up the ball and was in for a try. Bergamasco converted and the Express took a 10-8 lead over the Stampede at halftime.

It took only four minutes into the second half for Pedrie Wannenburg to take the ball from a lineout turned into a maul and power his way in for a try. Magie conversion was wide, but Denver regained the lead 13-10.

It took twelve additional minutes before another Magie penalty kick increased the score to 16-10. The Express answered right back with a penalty kick of their own from Bergamasco and the score was 16-13. Bergamasco had another opportunity to tie the match, but his kick was wide.

The score stay the same until ten minutes were left in the match. Will Magie added a penalty kick and another five minutes later to increase Denver’s lead to 22-13. The later was an important kick, as Sacramento would need at least two scores to win.

The final scoring of the day came off an exciting attack by the Stampede. Malifa stepped inside a defender and offloaded to Fenoglio, who offloaded it back to Malifa whose quick hands to Wannenburg resulted in a highlight try in the corner. With the match in hand, Magie calmly slotted the ball from just inside touch. The match ended with that play and Denver emerged with a 29-13 win.

Next week Denver has a bye, but will be home on July 10th against San Diego. Sacramento plays on July 3rd at San Francisco.